Some leagues live by the rope. Others graft for every run. This Staturday asks one simple question of all 33 ECB Premier Leagues: how much of your scoring comes in fours and sixes?
Across the Premier Leagues in 2026, 57.1% of all runs came from boundaries. That’s the national norm. Now look at the extremes.
Huddersfield are the boundary merchants, and it isn’t close. Two-thirds of every run scored in the Huddersfield League (67.1%) came from the rope, and 18.2% came from sixes alone. No other league gets within five points. Whatever the reason, Huddersfield batters aren’t there to scamper singles.
At the other end is Cornwall, the grafters’ league. Only 50.6% of Cornish runs came in boundaries, so running between the wickets very nearly pulls level with hitting. Surrey, Yorkshire North and South Wales are close behind at around 52.5%.
But boundary share is only half the story. A league can lean on boundaries because it hits plenty of them, or because it barely scores off anything else. So we also measured the running rate: runs scored per 100 balls that didn’t reach the boundary.
That’s where it gets interesting. South Wales (37.9), West of England (37.7) and Surrey (37.2) are the busiest runners in the country. Liverpool & District sits bottom on 26.8. That makes Liverpool the purest “boundary or bust” league in England: third for boundary share, last for running. Add the earlier Staturdays – third-hardest place to score runs, joint 30th for strike rate – and you have a league where runs are scarce and singles scarcer still.
West of England, meanwhile, does both. Fifth for boundary share and second for running, it’s no wonder it topped the tempo map. Hit hard, run hard. It’s a simple formula, and almost nobody else manages it.
Lincolnshire and Dorset tell a different story. They get less of their scoring from sixes than anyone (4.9% and 5.7%), yet fours alone make up around half their runs. These are along-the-ground leagues: the ball goes through the field, not over it.
So which is your league: merchants or grafters? The full table is below.
Boundary merchants vs grafters: all 33 leagues, 2026
Ranked from most to least boundary-dependent. Across all 33 leagues, 57.1% of runs came from boundaries and 11.1% from sixes. The running rate shows how busy batters are off the balls that don’t reach the rope.
The full table for all 33 leagues is below. Where does yours sit?
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| Rank | League | Runs from boundaries (%) | From fours (%) | From sixes (%) | Running rate (runs per 100 non-boundary balls) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huddersfield | 67.1 | 49.0 | 18.2 | 28.4 |
| 2 | Cheshire | 61.7 | 48.1 | 13.6 | 31.2 |
| 3 | Liverpool & District | 61.6 | 51.5 | 10.1 | 26.8 |
| 4 | Northamptonshire | 61.5 | 50.7 | 10.8 | 28.8 |
| 5 | West of England | 61.2 | 44.3 | 16.9 | 37.7 |
| 6 | Bradford | 60.2 | 45.4 | 14.8 | 33.1 |
| 7 | Derbyshire | 59.4 | 46.0 | 13.4 | 31.5 |
| 8 | Birmingham & District | 58.8 | 46.9 | 11.9 | 33.7 |
| 9 | North Staffs & South Cheshire | 58.7 | 46.5 | 12.2 | 28.5 |
| 10 | Greater Manchester | 57.8 | 45.2 | 12.6 | 28.5 |
| 11 | Sussex | 57.7 | 46.7 | 11.0 | 36.0 |
| 12 | North Wales | 57.6 | 48.2 | 9.4 | 35.4 |
| 13 | Home Counties | 57.4 | 47.1 | 10.3 | 32.0 |
| 14 | Southern | 56.9 | 48.0 | 8.9 | 32.1 |
| 15 | Dorset | 56.7 | 51.0 | 5.7 | 30.1 |
| 16 | North East | 56.5 | 45.2 | 11.3 | 32.7 |
| 17 | Hertfordshire | 56.3 | 45.7 | 10.7 | 35.8 |
| 18 | North Yorkshire & South Durham | 56.1 | 46.0 | 10.1 | 30.8 |
| 19 | Northern | 55.9 | 43.9 | 12.0 | 31.8 |
| 20 | Essex | 55.8 | 46.2 | 9.6 | 33.4 |
| 21 | Kent | 55.6 | 43.1 | 12.5 | 36.1 |
| 21 | Devon | 55.6 | 45.4 | 10.2 | 34.0 |
| 23 | Leicestershire & Rutland | 55.5 | 45.7 | 9.7 | 36.9 |
| 24 | East Anglian | 55.4 | 46.1 | 9.3 | 34.2 |
| 25 | Nottinghamshire | 55.2 | 43.5 | 11.7 | 36.1 |
| 26 | Yorkshire Southern | 55.0 | 44.9 | 10.1 | 31.4 |
| 27 | Lancashire | 54.6 | 43.2 | 11.4 | 32.2 |
| 28 | Lincolnshire | 54.0 | 49.0 | 4.9 | 33.6 |
| 29 | Middlesex | 53.4 | 45.0 | 8.5 | 34.3 |
| 30 | Surrey | 52.6 | 43.3 | 9.3 | 37.2 |
| 30 | Yorkshire North | 52.6 | 44.1 | 8.5 | 34.7 |
| 32 | South Wales | 52.4 | 42.6 | 9.8 | 37.9 |
| 33 | Cornwall | 50.6 | 39.8 | 10.9 | 35.6 |
Check out all the TOP 500 Premier League Run Scorers in 2026 HERE!
